Tapp’s Initiative: Artist In Residence

Tapp’s Initiative, our Artist in Residence program, is envisioned as a unique opportunity for engagement between artists who focus on site-specific installation and the general public. The Tapp’s Initiative was developed to bring contemporary art production, practice and community engagement to the Columbia/Midlands area. Each resident has full access to their own studio space for four months. Throughout this time, the resident artist will realize a site-specific project, and invite the public to discuss and interact with the contemporary artwork during several open-gallery events. The interactive aspect of the Tapp’s Initiative furthers an understanding of contemporary art, modes of practice, and how visual language functions in ‘building’ culture, both locally and abroad.

Next Artist In Residence: 1/1/18- 4/30/18

Tapp’s is excited to announce that it’s next Artist in Residence will be Olga Yukhno. Starting in January, Olga will take up residence in studio 1 at Tapp’s Arts Center to produce a body of work that fuses imagery, allegories and patterns pulled from local, national and international news sources. Producing mixed media works and clay sculptures, her project will culminate in a solo exhibition in May, 2018, unfolding the unique story of her experience as a Russian-American Artist.

About the Project:

24 Hours (heart) Breaking News

Yukhno states, “24 Hours: (heart) Breaking News will be based on a series of news stories that I personally found to be interesting, inspiring, moving or otherwise noteworthy. Each news story will have a very specific reason why it attracted me- the type of stories with a very human and very relatable topic, articles with a personal and inspiring look into important world issues. Each piece will have the news story displayed next to it to be read, and the artwork will be a multi-media installation that is a reflection of the article. It will show how I perceive the situation, and will be my personal, metaphorical take on the content of the news story.
I want to put together this installation because this type of news tackles very serious social and humanitarian issues that I feel very passionately about, and casts them in a very personal light. I am extremely inspired by the strength and resilience of the human spirit, and our ability to cope with the worst situations imaginable. I’m fascinated by how multi-faceted the problems we face are, and I want to create work that unfolds the layers of these complex situations, and helps me, and others, to find meaning between the lines.”

Olga Yukhno is an artist originally from Pyatigorsk, Russia. It was in Russia her passion for art began. Inspired by the culture of her home country, she started by working with batiques, stained glass and enameling. She studied under world renowned enamelist, Nikolai Vdovkin for several years to hone her skills, before moving to the United States in 2008.

In the US, she no longer had access to the tools needed to continue with her enameling, and quickly started expanding into any and every new medium she could get access to. What she fell in love with was ceramic sculpting. It allowed her to experiment, and fuse together old-world artistry with her skills and abilities across a wide variety of art forms to create totally new and unique mixed media pieces.

Over the years, Olga has traveled to over 40 countries across Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and the Americas, and visited museums ranging from the world famous Louvre in France, to the smallest unnamed art displays in towns and villages few outsiders have ever seen. It is in these travels she gets the most inspiration, drawing on the uniqueness and culture of every new place she visits, she finds ways to incorporate those cultural nuances into each new piece she makes. The colors, shapes, and ideas of everything from tribal masks to modern street art can be seen woven into her work. She loves juxtaposition in her art, old and new, lustrous and weathered, and it’s in these contrasts she finds beauty.

As a member of the International Federation of Artists, Olga has taken part in many shows and exhibitions in both Russia and the United States. In 2006, she won the International Design Contest for Traditional National Costumes in Moscow. She has been featured in multiple solo exhibitions, including at the Bascom Art Center, and several galleries in North and South Carolina. She has completed courses and taught at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, and has studied under many acclaimed sculptors in the South East.

Currently her work is a mixture of three dimensional ceramic and mixed media wall pieces, figurative sculpture, and larger scale installation works. The process used to create many of her signature looks is achieved by hand pressing each individual impression into the clay using small custom made metal tools. She hand makes all of these tools herself out of repurposed architectural metal scraps. She also loves to incorporate found objects, as well as utilize techniques from other art forms she’s studied and practiced, such as weaving, encaustic and metal working. The result of this process, different incorporated elements and techniques are what create her unique and visually interesting personal style. Her degree in psychology shapes the ideas and concepts behind many of her pieces, with the intention that observing her work encourages the viewer to think more about what they’re seeing, and the emotions it evokes.

About Tapp’s Arts Center and the Tapp’s Initiative:

The Tapp’s Initiative was developed to bring contemporary art production, practice and community engagement to the Columbia/Midlands area. Each resident has full access to their own studio space for four months. Throughout this time, the resident artist will realize a site-specific project, and invite the public to discuss and interact with the contemporary artwork during several open-gallery events. The interactive aspect of the Tapp’s Initiative furthers an understanding of contemporary art, modes of practice, and how visual language functions in ‘building’ culture, both locally and abroad.

Tapp’s Arts Center is giant artistic laboratory focused on community engagement. We encourage artistic agency through exhibitions, cultural events, workshops, classes, and studios to help Columbia create, learn and grow.